On the way home, on a lark, I picked up some Grolsch, which I had not had for easily a dozen years. I remember it being much better. In fact, I will go on record and say this is horrid. I could not even finish one. Blech. Maybe it was skunked.
At any rate, some more pet pics. Some complaints about too many cats (what can I say, we are cat people here), so here are some pups for you:
Claim your pets.
Comrade Stuck
For those interested. Tonight on Frontline is "Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story"
It should provide with some sweet schadenfreude, along with flashes of anger.
Earl
Georgous corgi. Here’s mine:
John Cole
Growing up, my friend has a corgi named Abner, and if I could use one word to describe him (the dog), it would be ornery. Are they all like that?
JGabriel
John Cole:
On the other hand, maybe it was Grolsch.
.
jakester
Hah, I always think that when I drink Grolsch. "Is this a bad batch?" I ask myself…
SGEW
When I was in Amsterdam and Den Haag (and, unfortunately, Rotterdam), me and my American comrades soon discovered that Grolsch was the cheapest, shittiest beer in all of the Nederlands. As we were broker than cracked corn, we drank barrel-fulls of it, seeing as how we could not afford Heineken (several of them took the Heineken tour several times, just to get the free pint).
Ah, Grolsch. Brings back memories. Nasty, poor memories.
KBuhcnana
Anything in a green bottle will skunk very easily, but I’d also have to agree with JGabriel up above. Grolsch is definitely a sub-par Euro-style lager. If you’re going with the Euro lagers, play it safe and stick with brown bottles. Much better protection from UV rays.
Davebo
I loves me some Grolsch, but then again there are very few Dutch beers I don’t love.
I’d go with skunked.
Soooo… Dutch Beer joke!
Freddie Heineken meets the heads of Grolsch and Amstel in a bar. Not suprisingly the Grolsch guy orders a Grolsch and the Amstel guy orders an Amstel.
Freddie orders a coca cola. The two ask him why?
He replies, well if you guys aren’t having a beer I won’t either.
gsp
two fucking pictures of dogs and about 5 dozen of cats? go fly a kite, you feline hack.
mhanch
every Grolsch that I have had tasted skunked.
I miss the old Red Hook Ale. tasted like bannana. They don’t make it anymore. Same with the original Ballard Bitter. Yum.
KBuhcnana
The original Red Hook was based on a yeast they didn’t quite know how to control. Red Hook brings it back every once in a while, but it’s rare. They killed Ballard Bitter. That still makes me sad. On the plus side, they have just brought back the Double Black Stout in a limited release here. I’ve got a bottle in my fridge awaiting adjudication.
R-Jud
I think they call it "Grolsch" because that’s the noise you make immediately after you try it for the first time.
Earl
Well — male Corgis are nicer and better pets than female. But a lot depends on how they’re raised. Mine was actually a rescue that spent probably a year living in a dumpster behind a grocery and couldn’t be nicer: friendly to people and other dogs (which is a big consideration since I live in Manhattan).
shirt
This is not a product endorsment or attack but… I feel about most sam adams beers the way the grolsch consensus is here. (I have no opinion of the dark beers because I don’t drink them). On election night I bought a 4pack of "Imperial Pilsner". The stuff is so hoppy I thought somebody had shook in some styptic powder… Damn it was good. A bit cloudy, but I don’t mind. Warning: promptly fell asleep after the 4th maverick.
qwerty42
re Grolsch, beer in green bottles can get skunky faster (I admit the green bottles look nice tho). That said, I don’t believe I’ve had Grolsch in a number of years myself.
Crusty Dem
Grolsch is worse than pisswater. I’m heading home where my difficult decision is whether to drink the blue label Chimay or the Fin du Monde.
I suppose I’ll need food, too, but it’s not as important..
Michael D.
Euwww. Grolsch. Two good things about Grolsch:
1. The bottles (with cork & lever)
2. The custom glasses
Other than that. Nothing.
jake 4 that 1
Sounds like the plot for some prime MST3K fodder.
Keith
I second that one and add that the same is true (for me at least) for Heineken and Newcastle (clear bottle).
The beer from GTA IV?
Krista
I don’t have a problem with Grolsch (except for when I tried to pronounce it in the Dutch fashion while in a bar in Apeldoorn).
That corgi is adorable — I love the look on its face.
Speak for yourself, my friend. I’m all about the doggies.
Fern
@John Cole:
Generally, yes.
JL
Why isn’t John eating his leftover spagetti squash?
Just Some Fuckhead
Yeah, I just figured his "we are cat people here" comment was intended to mean "You ain’t one of us, Fuckhead – suck it."
But anyway I don’t need to superficially group with pseudonymous strangers as long as I got my best friend and constant canine companion. The cat people, OTOH, after spending all day cleaning out a disgusting litter box and tending to an emotionless killing machine need all the superficial online bonding they can get.
Calouste
Grolsch is probably one of the best generally available lagers to get in Holland, together with Hertog Jan and Brand. The export version is teh suck though, it never tastes good.
At the moment I have some Red Stripe at home, and I’ll probably buy another box of that.
Krista
@Just Some Fuckhead
I don’t have a problem with cats…for the most part. I’m not a fan of the psychotic ones, however. I cat-sit once for a friend, and the beast spent all of its time flying around my apartment, bouncing from chair to table to countertop to the top of the fridge and back down again, whirling around and meowing incessantly. And every once in a blue moon, it would come up to me and act like it wanted to be petted, but as soon as I approached it with my hand, it would shriek and claw the living shit out of my hand.
I was thisclose to giving it the old heave-ho off of my 15th floor balcony.
But I do like sane cats, whether they’re snuggly or aloof.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Krista: As I’ve noted before, we have two of the killing machines. One of ’em is fourteen years old and is convinced it’s always time to eat right now. Early bird special dementia, I call it. The other one just kills and kills and kills. When they’re not hollering to be fed, dragging something bloody or dead in the house, throwing up on my pool table, trying to cover the doodoo in the litter box with the bathroom shower curtain, or just generally on the wrong side of a closed door, yeah they can be cute or precious or whatever for four and a half minutes until they attack your hand.
But it’s not a fair trade. Not even close.
Josh Hueco
Manx cats are the best. They’re more like dogs in temperament.
Downpuppy
Grolsch tastes a lot like Miller, so if you want domestic taste in a green bottle, it’s the way to go.
If you want good beer in green, stick to Urquell.
As to Sam Adams – the Boston Lager is perfect. Just ignore all the useless varieties.
fuddmain
The top dog is my Brinkley. He’s mostly Border Collie.
Just Some Fuckhead
He’s very handsome. What’s his temperament? How many commands does he know?
demimondian
@Just Some Fuckhead: Feh, you all are such losers. We have three killing machines — our fourth cat, sadly, about two years ago. Whatever he was, George was not a killing machine. When we got our oldest cat, Gracie, George came with her. They were from the same litter, and he was somewhat impaired. The elevator stopped at the sixth floor, in fact, and every thought had to climb the last three stories by itself. His previous owners were convinced, probably correctly, that without her, he’d starve to death.
jibeaux
Ok, got nothing to say about pets or Grolsch, but a day late and $150k short can I just say this is funny?
I don’t know what’s weirder, the idea that she bought, hmm, 75,000 pairs or so of kids’ underwear, or that with RNC campaign funds she actually bought kids’ underwear (they didn’t have enough pairs to hit the campaign trail?), or that the RNC wants its used underwear back, or that her dad is talking to the AP about used underwear…
I wonder if Trig got some Neiman-Marcus diapers?
I actually really hope she stays a little bit in the national spotlight, it’s kind of like methadone for the politics-obsession withdrawal I’m going through…
Mojotron
I don’t know if all three of those brands actually are skunked all the time now or if you and I share some weird enzyme or what but I’d swear that all 3 of those used to be fine and are now undrinkable.
fuddmain
@Just Some Fuckhead:
He’s not as driven as a typical Border Collie and is a little bit on the skittish side. Overall, a very good temperament, but he generally doesn’t like being petted by strangers.
We did the basic obedience training and he’s got that down pretty well. I’d like to do some agility with him, but my human kids take up too much time at the moment.
All in all, a great dog and we love him.
grammy
People please chill ! The world’s ugliest dog has died . Frankly, no creature to me is ugly however , this dog had a beautiful soul .
The Pale Scot
Did you get the 6pack or the re-sealable pint bottles, the 6pack is for export and is horrid stuff, the pints are much better with nice hops,
The Pale Scot
What a terrible spot you must have been in to be looking forward to Heineken.
Anybody ever have Cooper’s Real Ale?
Ella in NM
Ok, first of all, I am sorry I missed your request on how to prepare spaghetti squash yesterday, because my recipe is the best: pierce it all over with a knife so it doesn’t explode and cook it in the microwave around 10-15 minutes. When it cools some, Cut it in half, scrape away the seeds and separate out the slightly sweet, slightly crunchy strands with a fork. Mix it in a bowl with some butter, some olive oil, a little garlic, a little salt and pepper, ton’s of half-n-half and up to about a tablespoon of dried sage. Yummmmmmm…It’s even good cold.
Second, we in my family have found that Corgi’s are the some of the most wonderful, loving, intelligent, family-oriented dogs we have ever known. My 23 year-old son was doing wildlife research out in the grasslands of Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota two summers ago. In a remote lake area, miles away from any human activity, he and his research partner spotted what they thought was a small fox trotting along the shore. As they got closer, they realized it was a dog–covered in ticks and fleas, ribs and shoulder bones clearly visible through his skin, the little fellow was starving, frightened, and alone. As my son carefully approached him, he expected the dog to run away or even get aggressive, but instead, he immediately began wagging his tail, perking his ears up, and rolled over on his back, begging him to come pet him. Even though he was obviously a full-bread Corgi, which one would think would be a valued pet if he was lost, none of the Forest Service or nearby police had had any reports on him, so my son brought him home, loved him up, and they have been best buddies ever since. He named him Scruppy, but we call him Scruppy Doo,–Doober for short.
For a few months, he was easily startled, kind of unsure about people, scared if we made unexpected loud noises or raised our voices. One day he bolted, tail between his legs, out of the room when I was bitching out loud to the TV about the latest dumb shit thing George Bush had done, so now we joke he doesn’t like to talk about politics.
I wish I had a picture of him on my computer I could send so you all could check out his adorable little foxy face.
HinTN
Grolch is LAAGER, fer Chrissake. Who wants LAAGER? Go buy ale, or porter, or stout. Real flavor in a real beer.
Leo
I just wanted to point out that, through the combined efforts of Wonkette and Fark, the Rebuild the Party site’s ideas submission page is now dominated by ninjas, pirates, and TruckNutz.
Seems like Republicans may not be cut out for the tubes.
phobos
Corgi. Want. If our condo association weren’t so persnickety, I’d have a Pembroke named Ein in a heartbeat.
As for Grolsch, I’d lump that in with brews that were never meant to travel. The end result of numerous import tasting parties is that I mainly stick with pale ales these days.
Chuck Butcher
Since I’ve been clean and sober for over 20 years memory may not serve well, but as I remember skunk was how I’d have identified the taste.
As far as:
JC put up a pic of one dog that weighs more than all the kittycat’s put together. Guess it depends on point of view. I like Gus better than our cat, but I like her pretty darn well. For reference, in sleek condition Gus is 150#, I don’t know what would be the result if he porked out.
fuddmain
@Leo:
That warms the cockles of my heart. The comments are full of win:
Josh Hueco
I see that the cats versus dogs question is becoming Balloon Juice’s equivalent of the netroots versus establishment quarrel.
Krista
@Ella in NM
Awww….Doober sounds like an absolute sweetie. He was very lucky the day your son found him. I love Corgis, especially when they get that huge, ridiculous Corgi grin going.
My one and only childhood kitty, Shadow, was a ruthless killing machine (he once tried to take on a Canada Goose that was hanging around our backyard) and an absolute snuggle-bunny. He set the bar so damn high that even if I hadn’t developed an allergy to cats, I don’t think I’d ever have another cat anyway, because I’d want it to be as nice a cat as Shadow, and that wouldn’t be fair.
HyperIon
hater.
Incertus
@fuddmain: Yes, the suggestion to turn the elephant into an AT-AT Walker and suck my trucknutz was very nice, I thought.
Hmkay
http://geryonblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/not-quite-golden-doodle.html
So cute!!!
Cain
My cats are not killing machines. The cat that loves going out all the time is more dog than cat. Stares down dogs, aggressive with cats whatever. But when it comes to killing, he prefers to sniff plants. I’m not even sure he knows what to do with a bird if he kills it. He likes to use his tongue to eat things, lips his dry cat food. If I give him wet cat food, he licks the juices and then goes away. I’ve never seen him take a bite out of anything. Dork.
My younger, female cat. She would be a killing machine if she wasn’t so damn scared of everything. She knows she wants to go out and kill the bird, but is scared of going outside during the day. But at night, she probably could do some damage, but again.. she doesn’t like staying out more than 15 minutes at a time. Then again, I’m happy, we hate killing animals and it’s kind of nice to have cats that reflect our values. ;)
They’re both precious though, hardly cause me much trouble, and not very picky about anything. Except one or the other has pee’d somewhere and I’m having a devil of a time trying to find it. I’ve bought a black light, but I’ve not been able to triangulate where the smell is coming from, and it’s driving me crazy.
cain
Eric U.
Did the Belgians somehow manage to stop the passage of their beer into the Netherlands? When I was there, you could get any beer you wanted, and what you wanted was Belgian beer. I have never had a skunky Sam Adams. Yuengling has always tasted rotten to me, but for some reason it’s a big deal around here. There was a microbrew out in Park City that made skunky beer. I think some brewmasters just think that’s what beer should taste like.
I pretty much get stuck drinking Rolling Rock nowadays since my wife buys the beer. It’s a sad story, but I guess it could be worse. I find it fairly inoffensive.
Notorious P.A.T.
When are you going to post my hamster picture?
r€nato
Bush is going to write a book after he leaves office
let the snarking begin.
Comrade Stuck
@Notorious P.A.T.:
Probably the same time he posts my Parakeet. Sounds like small critter bias to me. Why hasn’t Obama done something yet?
kommrade jakevich
@Krista: That was nae cat, that was a PUMA!
Yes, I know, I’m going to hell.
Notorious P.A.T.
"The Pet Goat 2: This Time It’s Personal"
John Cole
@gsp: I like both dogs and cats, but for whatever reason, I just love cats. I like the unconditional love of dogs, but with cats, I like the attitude. I like the independence.
I am thinking about getting a dog, though, and probably will next spring. However, I will state this- I will always have at least one cat in the house. I just have to. Cats are my people, and while I bitch about Tunch, we understand each other.
I can not imagine a world without cats.
cain
This is a little too much like "Gandhi 2: No more Mr. Passive Resistance". link
I love Wierd Al. :)
cain
Comrade Darkness
I’m probably late as hell with seeing this video (because I think it already has a music video and cable channel and stuff), but this is priceless, and all the better to post to the dog thread in support of neurotic cats.
This couple decided that they really needed to find out why their water bill was sky high every month. Well, they found out.
Bored cat, out of control
Bony Baloney
I think I remember Grolsch from high school. It was a kind of stone, or ceramic roach clip, that came attached to a green bottle of fizzy piss. They sold in bunches of six, and you had to pour out the piss and pull off this rubber ring and detach a strange wire attachment from the packaging, but there were no moving parts and the stones lasted forever, so it was a pretty good deal if you got a co-op together.
They have some kind of promotion going on now involving beer? That’s so typical. Partnership for a Toxic-Recreation America rubbish, I can smell it a mile away. No thanks.
Comrade Darkness
I had Grolsch in Germany this summer. Only because it was a tied house like most of them are. Well, I could not eat my mid-morning weisswurst without a beer, so I gritted my teeth and ordered one. It was pretty good. So, I’m guessing like the French wine lake that gets bottled for America, the Germans are harboring a beer lake.
jeffro
@Downpuppy:
Does your local distributor carry the variety case that has Urquell, Tyskie, and Peroni? I’m a fan. Not too expensive, either.
Gus
There’s room for all beer styles, as long as they’re made with love. I bought a sixer of Pilsner Urquell tonight because I was super thirsty, and no ale or porter or stout sounded right.
KBuhcnana
If you don’t love lagers as well as ales, you don’t love beer. I was in the mood for a Belgian sour tonight, and we actually have a lovely one brewed locally by a small brewery up in Port Townsend. A glass of that, a pint of Sierra Nevada Celebration (hadn’t had it yet this year), and I was off to the races. If there’d been a dopplebock available, I might have wept with joy.
Give me a German pils in the summertime (or the winter, for that matter), and I’m a happy, happy man. And if I could just get my meaty paws on those big, gnarly swing caps of Altstadthof Helles, I’d never worry about my beer happiness again.
And a Grolsch tied house in Germany? Where were you, up north? That’s just whack.
Bony Baloney
Now there’s a thing: a fella disrespecting the north of Germany right in the big middle of a beer snob thread. I buried an Ami tourist in a nice deep grave outside of Lübeck once, after he used the word Budmilloors in a sentence referring to pilsner generally. You want to see it? I imagine the soil is still loose.
Stooleo
Wow, I never thought my corgi Charlie would make the grade, imagine my surprise this morning. Thanks John. And for more shameless self promotion, if you’d like to see Charlie perform silly tricks you can view them here.
Comrade Darkness
I was about four blocks from the train station in Munich, actually. It *was* weird. It was a small place, so perhaps it was less tied than just a limited selection of a grolsch-crazed owner…?
I could probably find it with google maps, but google maps really sucks for finding retail in Europe (even in the native language), so I’ve given up using it for that.